This invention relates to a hay bale feeder and relates particularly to an improved feeder for feeding out hay, straw or the like from bales and more particularly from round bales.
Round bales of hay, straw or the like are formed by rolling the hay, etc., into a substantially cylindrically shaped bale which may have a diameter of up to two meters or more. Various machines are available for forming such bales. Depending on the type of machine used, the bales may be formed an even density of material throughout the bale, or with a relatively dense core of tightly packed material with the outer layers of material either as tightly packed or less dense, or the bale may be formed with a relatively low density core and the outer layers of material more tightly packed to form a relatively dense outer layer.
When feeding out material from such bales, it is necessary to break down the round bales or unroll the bales to form a mat of feed. Several machines have been proposed for feeding hay from a round bale or for unrolling such round bales, but these machines have a number of drawbacks, being either complex and relatively expensive or being unable to evenly feed all the hay from the round bales.